Threat of terror our new reality: Police chief

Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen08.31.2010

Ottawa Police Chief Vern White attends a press briefing in which the RCMP discussed the arrests of three Ottawa residents by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in relation to terrorism offences, Aug. 26, 2010.

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OTTAWA — The threat of terrorism is the new norm in Ottawa, says police Chief Vern White.

But he added in an interview with the Citizen that he believes there is no reason for people here to be living in fear.

“We are safer today than a year ago because these people have been arrested,” he said.

But if something doesn’t look right, call the police, he said.

“But I would tell people to be vigilant about the abnormal. It doesn’t hurt to make the call and let police decide what’s up. People shouldn’t be worried about feeling ridiculous if they are wrong.

“We have to be concerned about it for at least a couple of decades to come,” he said, “and the best way to protect people is to stop it before it happens.

“But there has to be a balance between vigilance and freedom. This is very much a free society where freedom of movement is expected and demanded by our public.”

White says that one key to keeping people safe lies in engaging the whole community.

“Having these relationships with all communities within Ottawa makes us safer,” he added. “The Muslim community said they are shoulder-to-shoulder with us to root out terrorism and organized crime. They are victims as much as anyone else — they might argue more than anyone else. As one of them asked, ‘does anyone know the religion of the Royal Bank of Canada bombers (on Bank Street)?’ The question was never asked.”

According to police, the three arrested terrorists and others still at large were part of an al-Qaeda-inspired cell bent on causing death, injury and destruction in the nation’s capital. Revenge for Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan appears to have been one motive.

Police say they seized circuit boards and other electronic equipment used in the building of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed many Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Internationally respected terrorism expert Martin Rudner speculates that if revenge for Afghanistan was the motive, the would-be attackers had the pick of targets in the nation’s capital. “If to punish Canada for Afghanistan was the goal,” he said, “then you target institutions of the government of Canada. Among them would be the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces facilities in Ottawa and even the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Gatineau because they are involved in the developmental and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.”

It could even be symbolically significant that the alleged terrorists were planning to bring IEDs to Canada’s capital. In the bigger picture, he added, is the concern extremist Muslims have about moderate followers being seduced by secular, democratic societies.

“It’s what they call apostasy and in their view punishment for apostasy is death. So I could imagine a scenario where to prevent apostasy they could have a strategy of broad targeting in a multicultural country like Canada and a multicultural city like Ottawa.

“The random planting of these devices could cause catastrophic casualties on buses, in shopping malls and clubs — similar to what happened in London. Canadians could suffer losses, engage in vigilante acts against their neighbours, which would target innocent Muslims.”

The logic is that innocent Muslims might feel that Canadian society doesn’t protect them and be radicalized as a result. “This is speculative, but it fits with what we know about al-Qaeda and the experience we have of them.”

Rudner’s scenario fits with the devastation homegrown terrorists caused in London five years ago when they attacked the subway and the bus system.

One of the ringleaders was a medical doctor with a young family. A report by Oxford University called “The Engineers of Jihad” showed that predominant among dead and captured terrorists were doctors, engineers and computer scientists.

“In all cases,” said Rudner, “they had western upbringings and were highly educated in western universities. It’s a phenomenon where all the professions are technical professions and where they don’t ask philosophical questions as part of their professions.

“There have been no philosophers among captured terrorists — people who ask questions and who are tolerant of other cultures. So here you have a technical excellence coupled with a belief in one thing and that all else is evil.

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